Solidworks Photoview p2m files

[philw]

Sorry guys - new to Keyshot - loving it - first silly question...

I'm recreating an old Solidworks assembly and would like to re-apply the textures that had been used with Photoview - but they're in .p2m files ?   Can't find anything on how to make those useful to me here...

Any insights greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[Speedster]

Hi Phil, and welcome to the Forum.  There's no silly questions, only silly answers!

To the best of my knowledge you cannot import SolidWorks .p2m textures into KeyShot.  But here's some tricks that will help you...

You know this already I'm sure, but you do have to instruct KS about where you want to apply a material, and this is done by using "UV Mapping", or simply applying a color or colors to parts and/or specific surfaces.  But this has to be done in CAD prior to import.

The parts or surfaces you painted up in Photoview will likely import as new generic materials in KeyShot.  But it's much better to 'Remove all Materials' (colors) in SolidWorks, and "remap" those surfaces in any color you wish, but don't use SW materials, like "Cast Iron", Plastics" etc.  KS can get confused.  A single part does not need to be mapped as such, but you can if you wish, and I often do just to make identification easier.

Now, a part can be any color including the SW default grey, but if you need specific surfaces mapped, do so in SW.  An example is if you create a split-line, and then map the resulting surfaces in a color.  Think "flames" or "pin-striping" on a hot rod.  I usually do lettering this way, rather than applying a label later.  This way the lettering is to precise size and alignment.  You can always apply the same KS material to both the body and split and use a label instead.

I always "over-map", as most of my work (which you've likely seen here) is complex.  If you over-map, at least you have more options if you (or your client) change your mind.  For example, there may be discussion as to whether to pad-print a surface post-production.  So if you have already mapped those areas you can demonstrate variations.

Also, you want to map any surfaces (in any different color) that may need pattern alignment.  Think the direction of the wood grain on a furniture design, or tire tread being a different color than the sidewalls. Another example is the wood spokes on a wagon wheel, where each spoke would be a different color.

Another example would be a valve body, where the primary material will have a cast bump map, but some surfaces would have a lathe turned finish, and some a lathe face-off radial map applied.  So each would be a different color.  FYI- these colors (mapping) will be discrete to that part, and if you apply the same colors to another separate part, they will not be linked in KeyShot.

It's all really easy, and you'll get the hang of it in minutes!  Hope this helps...

Bill G

[philw]

Thanks Bill - everything is helpful! I'm coming from many years of digital vector illustration but 3D rendering is new to me...just my clients would find it very useful if I offer the full service. Being a Mac boy, Keyshot seemed a natural progression and as many of my clients are engineering products and are using me for marketing and documentation the 3D CAD can easily come via their internal departments.

All a learning curve but a good one. Wishing I'd learned to model a bit myself but CAD always seems a bit alien to my Adobe Illustrator underpinnings...but that may change...

:-)

[Speedster]

Wanna trade training?  I'm such a dunce in AI, and only fair in Photoshop. Still trying to learn Zbrush.  A lot of my work is for ad agencies, so you never know what they will send.

Important note:  New to KeyShot 6 (I'm a beta tester) is "Edit Geometry".  This allows you to access surfaces to repair and/or isolate, break or remap, all within KeyShot!  Works best with polys and subD, but also works fine (so far that I've tested it) In SolidWorks and other NURBS based apps.

There is so much in the pending KeyShot 6 release that you will definitely have to go for it! "Material Graphing" will blow your mind!

KeyShot 6 will be an industry game-changer!

Bill G

[philw]

Hey Bill - sorry for the delay - just managed to grab a week off with the family and internet connection was almost non-existant...

No problem on the AI stuff :-) Happy to help where I can...

Whilst I've got your attention  - what do machine do you run? Looking at a new Mac to speed up the rendering and currently trawling through the benchmark thread....


Cheers

Phil

[Speedster]

Hi Phil;

I'm running a 16 core BOXX liquid cooled and over-clocked workstation.  It's hyper-threaded at 32 cores, but I run KeyShot on 30 to save 2 cores for other concurrent work.  64 Gigs RAM, three 1 TB drives in a Raid 5, and a 264 gig SSC. Came in at $13k US.  I'm also using an EIZO 22" high-end monitor, and a Wacom tablet.

It's blazing fast!  Best investment I've ever made, and I'm planning a BOXX 64 core RenderPro soon in a network.

BOXX is the best, IMO!

Bill G

[edwardo]

Hey Phil, I am a mac guy, historically 2D, then some proE and solid works on PC (the dark years), then back to mac with rhino and keyshot predominantly.
If you want to stick to mac platform then I strongly suggest you get Rhino, whether you plan on 3D modelling or not. Its an invaluable conversion tool at times, and guess what, turns out its infinitely better at drawing 2D vectors that AI is - I have all but given up on illustrator, or find myself doing linework in Rhino then exporting a .ai files to illustrator to fill with colour etc! Seems daft?

Iv done a few jobs similar to what you describe (for OEM's that make stuff I usually have no idea what they do - i just make pretty pictures). In all cases I have had to apply a basic amount of rhino work, even though they have supplied me with STEP files. Bill will probably agree that solid models are often not very 'render friendly' and often need a bit of work (fillets, offsetting clashing surfaces etc etc). My point is, I don't think you are going to escape learning some basics in a cad package, and if you sticking with mac I recommend Rhino. But don't worry, its totally doable! I'll even wager money on you giving up some things you do in illustrator and start doing them in Rhino (especially when you want clean, lightweight curves without a million handles - kind of like surgeon vs butcher)

Iv currently got a top of the line MBP, 8 core, bla bla. Its decent, and fine for stills, but forget it if you want to churn out animations without farming them out (a 4 second animation took me 8 hours to render last week, not even hi res really!) At the moment i don't do much animation at all, but I would like to get into it more. Im deciding between one of Bill's Boxx's, or just farming everything out. The real benefit of owning your own monster is that working on complex scenes will become significantly faster. I often have to wait several minutes just to see that my materials aren't even remotely correct (although the new 'region render' in the realtime renderer in KS6 is such a time saver for me, I can concentrate ALL my power into a tiny part of my image, its almost like having BOXX speeds, but for 200x300 pix or whatever).

My advise depends on how you work. If you move about a bit, and visit clients etc, then get a good laptop, and if you can afford (or its financially sensible) get something like Bills BOXX! If your constantly at your workstation, then just get a BOXX or similar. If you are mostly doing still shots with the occasional animation its probably better just farming them out until it pays to get your own power machine.

Having said all that, Bill is able to work on scenes that I couldn't even dream of importing into my MBP! He's possibly been into the billions of ploys? I can't remember. So I'm pretty jealous about that!

I have spent a few years now figuring out good 'pipelines' on the mac platform, its not upto speed with windows regarding most 3D stuff, but getting there, so just ask if you need to know what apps seem to play well with others. A few freebee's i would suggest getting are 'Sculptress' (zbrush's little brother) and 'crazy bump' for making normal maps etc.

Good luck with moving into the third dimension!

Ed

[philw]

Thanks Ed - funny you should mention Rhino - bought it last week and enjoying it so far!

It is currently on offer and needed to create my own geometry exactly for the reasons you mention - the Solidworks stuff just had too many issues and was making life harder in keyshot than it needed to be...

My current work is making printed electronics look interesting so basically sheets of PET with conductive inks printed and arranged in a stack - so scope for some nice exploded views. Got a good deal on a Retina i7 iMac and the difference between it and my older 2010 i5 iMac is like chalk and cheese so the multithreading certainly helps. If I can build up this side of my business then will definitely need to invest in more kit, especially for animation like you say. 75% of my time is still in Illustrator and Indesign so a its a good all rounder for the moment.

Thanks for all the info - greatly appreciated :-)

[edwardo]

Cool, Im still gonna wager that you start doing certain (2D) things in rhino that you previously did in illustrator! I'v not used a recent cut of AI, so maybe its changed, but wait till you see how much easier it is to draw shapes in rhino - trim tools and blend tools just make life so much easier! then export as an .ai file. simples!

ps when is the rhino offer up? I need to get it (been running on the [perfectly stable] beta version for about 5 years!)

[TpwUK]

Ends September 2015 Edwardo

Martin

[edwardo]

thanks